One of the great themes of monasticism is the desert. The monks deliberately went into the desert to be alone and to seek God. The ancients considered the desert the dwelling-place of demons. Anthony went into the desert to fight the demons on their own turf. It was a heroic decision to push his way into the realm of the demons — and a declaration of war on the demons that plagued him and sought to drive him from their domain. Anthony believed that thanks to his struggle against the demons the situation for men and women in the world would be a little brighter and healthier. If he conquered the demons, then they would have less power over people in the world. To that extent his struggle with the demons was also fought on the world’s behalf.
In the desert Anthony combated the demons as part of his service to humanity. It was his contribution toward improving the world. Having fled the world, he committed himself to the fight against the demons to make it healthier. For Anthony the desert was the place where the demons showed themselves more clearly and undisguised. Just as Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert when he was led there by the Holy Spirit, the monks who went to the desert had to reckon with the fact that they would be forced to fight the demons. Human beings are essentially battlers. And the old fathers won praise when they were victorious in their struggle.
When the devil left Jesus alone, angels came and ministered to him. The mountain of temptation became the mountain of paradise. The monks had the same experience. The desert is not just the stamping ground of the demons, the place where one cannot hide from one’s own truth, where one is unsparingly confronted with oneself and one’s shadow side. The desert is also the place of the greatest closeness to God. Israel experienced this when it discovered the wilderness as the place where God was nearest. God led Israel through the desert so that the people might enter the Promised Land.
Thus the monks were led by God in to the desert to endure the battle with the demons and through that struggle to come into the land of peace, into the land where one sees God. For Israel the wilderness was a time of testing and o f the glorification of God. Looking back on its history Israel recognized the years in the wilderness as a privileged time. It was the time when God grew fond of Israel, took her in his arms, and drew her with the chains of love (see Hosea 11). And God promised Israel that he would lead her into the wilderness again, to speak to her heart. The time in the wilderness would then be a new honeymoon: “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her” (Hos. 2:14).
So the monks experienced the desert as a place where they were close to God, where they could sense God’s love more intensely, because there were no worldly enticements to get in their way. But to sense the nearness of God, the monk has to take up the struggle with the demons. That struggle brings many temptations along with it, and temptation is where the monk meets the demons. The monks found that their strength and inner clarity grew by proving themselves in temptation and triumphing over the demons.
Temptation was part and parcel of their lives. Anthony says: “This is the great task of man, that he should hold his sin before the face of God, and count upon temptation until his last breath.”
~Anselm Gruen, Heaven Begins Within You: Wisdom from the Desert Fathers
